DGVCS Security from a Different Perspective: Challenges and Hurdles

This paper discusses Desktop Grid and Volunteer Computing System (DGVCS) security issues from a different point of view, namely that of an organisation security team that is external to the unit running DGVCS. In an existing large-scale environment, it is likely that there are techniques and procedures in place that deal with all manners of security. Introducing DGVCS into such structures brings along unique challenges. Besides modifications of the techniques and procedures already deployed, highly-distributed systems like DGVCS require additional effort especially when handling and containing incidents: With DGVCS, cross-site and cross-organisation collaboration is necessary in order to be able to effectively counter security threats.